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Detective Inspector Chen #1
Snake Agent
When a soul goes missing, an occult detective ventures into Hell to retrieve it
When the fourteen-year-old daughter of Singapore Three’s most prominent industrialist dies of anorexia, her parents assume that Pearl’s suffering has come to an end. But somewhere along the way to the Celestial Shores, Pearl’s soul is waylaid, lured by an unknown force to the gates of Hell. To save their daughter from eternal banishment, they come to Detective Inspector Wei Chen, whose jurisdiction lies between this world and the next.
A round-faced cop who is as serious as his beat is strange, Chen has a demon for a wife and a comfort with the supernatural that most mortals cannot match. But finding Pearl Tang will take him further into the abyss than ever before—to a mystifying place where he will have to cooperate with a demonic detective if he wants to survive. It’s easy, Chen will find, to get into Hell. The hard part is getting out.
When the fourteen-year-old daughter of Singapore Three’s most prominent industrialist dies of anorexia, her parents assume that Pearl’s suffering has come to an end. But somewhere along the way to the Celestial Shores, Pearl’s soul is waylaid, lured by an unknown force to the gates of Hell. To save their daughter from eternal banishment, they come to Detective Inspector Wei Chen, whose jurisdiction lies between this world and the next.
A round-faced cop who is as serious as his beat is strange, Chen has a demon for a wife and a comfort with the supernatural that most mortals cannot match. But finding Pearl Tang will take him further into the abyss than ever before—to a mystifying place where he will have to cooperate with a demonic detective if he wants to survive. It’s easy, Chen will find, to get into Hell. The hard part is getting out.
333 pages, ebook
First published September 1, 2005
210 people are currently reading
4121 people want to read
About the author
Liz Williams
146 books266 followersThere is more than one author with this name
Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. Her first novel, The Ghost Sister was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.[1] She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.
She is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. She has had short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, The Third Alternative and Visionary Tongue. From the mid-nineties until 2000, she lived and worked in Kazakhstan.[2] Her experiences there are reflected in her 2003 novel Nine Layers of Sky. Her novels have been published in the US and the UK, while her third novel The Poison Master (2003) has been translated into Dutch.
Series:
* Detective Inspector Chen
* Darkland
Liz Williams is a British science fiction writer. Her first novel, The Ghost Sister was published in 2001. Both this novel and her next, Empire of Bones (2002) were nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award.[1] She is also the author of the Inspector Chen series.
She is the daughter of a stage magician and a Gothic novelist. She holds a PhD in Philosophy of Science from Cambridge. She has had short stories published in Asimov's, Interzone, The Third Alternative and Visionary Tongue. From the mid-nineties until 2000, she lived and worked in Kazakhstan.[2] Her experiences there are reflected in her 2003 novel Nine Layers of Sky. Her novels have been published in the US and the UK, while her third novel The Poison Master (2003) has been translated into Dutch.
Series:
* Detective Inspector Chen
* Darkland
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 339 reviews
October 22, 2020
Snake Agent will always occupy a unique position in my library and in my reading history. First, as an aside, is the sheer beauty of the cover art. Four out of the five published books in the series have the same artist, and all four are stunning. Second, and more importantly, is the the familiar world-weary police officer trope in urban fantasy moved into a Chinese cultural and mythological setting. I haven't read many books in an Asian setting, much less urban fantasy, and Williams seems to have played respectfully with aspects of the traditions while turning them sideways in a most enjoyable fashion.
Set in modern Singapore--franchise #3, to be exact--Heaven and Hell are real stops on the reincarnation wheel. It's actually nice to have the framework plot of the world-weary detective going his own path, because it helps ground the reader in the unfamiliar. There's the somewhat challenged but staid sidekick, and the uneasy alliance with the criminal (demon)--but possibly honorable--element, and the unobtrusively supportive superior who will throw him to the wolves if the detective fails:
"You have my full and total support, as long as I don't actually have to go any nearer to this supernatural shit than I can help, and as long as you sort it out"
Williams is a talented writer, and the story is filled with rich detail, from the humidity and the desperately functioning air-conditioners in the police station, to the ominousness of the demonic world. The detail provides a sense of atmosphere to a case that literally involves the otherworldly, but yet avoids purple prose:
“The chanting seemed to have been going on for years. Chen could not remember a time when it had not been ringing in his ears: a surging, insistent note, threaded through with discord. He blinked, trying to clear his head. A red and gold ceiling swam above him; lights sparkled by. By degrees, he realized that he was still lying flat on his back on H’suen Tang’s carpet.”
Williams did use one of my unfavorite ploys, beginning the book with a scene fraught with danger, foreshadowing problems to come, but I forgive her, as the rest was so much fun. And so interesting. My only real criticism is the structure of the book; we initially meet Chen in third person view, then his wife (“meanwhile, back at the ranch…”), then the demon Zhu Irzh, and then she adds in a further perspective or two as the story progresses, which I felt might have jumbled the narrative unnecessarily. It would have been more fun seeing Zhu gain humanity through others’ perspective, rather than reading him thinking about it.
But really, what can you say about a book that contains lines such as “Passers-by took one look at Detective Inspector Chen hastening down the road with a lobster on a string, like one of the more eccentric French surrealists, and gave him a very wide berth” or followed by a discussion of how a Ministry of Hell uses pharmaceutical companies? Or realize that one of the major Ministries of Hell is the Ministry of Wealth? Love it.
Very dense, very flavorful, very satisfying. Third read complete.
cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2014/0...
Set in modern Singapore--franchise #3, to be exact--Heaven and Hell are real stops on the reincarnation wheel. It's actually nice to have the framework plot of the world-weary detective going his own path, because it helps ground the reader in the unfamiliar. There's the somewhat challenged but staid sidekick, and the uneasy alliance with the criminal (demon)--but possibly honorable--element, and the unobtrusively supportive superior who will throw him to the wolves if the detective fails:
"You have my full and total support, as long as I don't actually have to go any nearer to this supernatural shit than I can help, and as long as you sort it out"
Williams is a talented writer, and the story is filled with rich detail, from the humidity and the desperately functioning air-conditioners in the police station, to the ominousness of the demonic world. The detail provides a sense of atmosphere to a case that literally involves the otherworldly, but yet avoids purple prose:
“The chanting seemed to have been going on for years. Chen could not remember a time when it had not been ringing in his ears: a surging, insistent note, threaded through with discord. He blinked, trying to clear his head. A red and gold ceiling swam above him; lights sparkled by. By degrees, he realized that he was still lying flat on his back on H’suen Tang’s carpet.”
Williams did use one of my unfavorite ploys, beginning the book with a scene fraught with danger, foreshadowing problems to come, but I forgive her, as the rest was so much fun. And so interesting. My only real criticism is the structure of the book; we initially meet Chen in third person view, then his wife (“meanwhile, back at the ranch…”), then the demon Zhu Irzh, and then she adds in a further perspective or two as the story progresses, which I felt might have jumbled the narrative unnecessarily. It would have been more fun seeing Zhu gain humanity through others’ perspective, rather than reading him thinking about it.
But really, what can you say about a book that contains lines such as “Passers-by took one look at Detective Inspector Chen hastening down the road with a lobster on a string, like one of the more eccentric French surrealists, and gave him a very wide berth” or followed by a discussion of how a Ministry of Hell uses pharmaceutical companies? Or realize that one of the major Ministries of Hell is the Ministry of Wealth? Love it.
Very dense, very flavorful, very satisfying. Third read complete.
cross posted at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2014/0...
March 2, 2019
4½ out of 5 stars
Not many books have moments that both intrigue and disgust me at the same time. And not many books present these moments back to back with little respite in between for squeamish readers to settle their stomachs. That is to say this book is not a good lunch break read.
On the back cover:
I don't usually read cover blurbs anymore because of gimmicky taglines, but this one is a hilarious and accurate description of how I pictured Chen.
Detective Chen Wei works for the Singapore Three police department and oversees supernaturally related investigations. He's also Earth's liaison between Heaven and Hell. Anything weird or out of the ordinary that usually ends in homicide gets sent to Chen's desk, but judging by the amount of weirdness and extraordinary things happening in Singapore Three, it's odd not to see the whole police department trained as supernatural specialists. We don't see or learn much about Heaven in this book (we do in the next one), but we do get to go to Hell, several times over (all puns intended?).
The case is a puzzling one that's much more than it seems. A young girl from a prominent family has died of mysterious circumstances and now her ghost is missing. Ghosts don't usually go missing; they go to either Heaven or Hell. So the girl's mother comes to Chen for help to send her ghost on its way to Heaven, where she thinks her daughter belongs. Chen agrees to look into the matter, but finds almost nothing to go on. Then he finds out there's trouble at the family home and that the family may have questionable ties to Hell. That's when things get weird but in a fun, intriguing way.
The story is set some time in the very near future, and the location of Singapore Three is not mentioned specifically, but we can assume it's where Singapore is. What is mentioned is that the city has a large urban expanse, lively cityscape, coastal region, and a very humid, soggy rain season.
The cast of supporting characters are well developed and easy to like, and they add a lot of color to the plots and dialogues.
- Inari, Chen's wholesome but slightly naive wife and a Hell runaway who's trying to settle into her new life with Chen on earth (and their houseboat).
- The Badger / teakettle is her faithful servant and a grumpy, disgruntled spin on the helpful animal sidekick trope.
- Seneschal Zhu Irzh, an investigator from Hell and Vice (same difference, really), who has been assigned to investigate Hell's side of Chen's missing ghost girl case.
- Sargent Ma of Singapore Three PD is a squeamish cop who views Chen with suspicion and wants nothing to do with the supernatural, least of all Hell.
- Lao, the PD's exorcist and Chen's good friend, who's naturally suspicious of all things Hell and occasionally makes quippy remarks.
- Captain Sung is head of the PD and your average by-the-book, but slightly embattled, leader because he has to deal with Hell occasionally.
And a few more characters too spoilery to mention.
The idea of Heaven and Hell as bureaucracies is amusing to me, and like all dysfunctional bureaucracies, they each have their own versions of petty power struggles and office politics. I find Liz Williams' takes on the denizens of Hell who are stuck in these mind-numbing, paper-pushing thankless jobs just hilarious... and so real. Given that Williams' background as an ambassador's underling, it's no wonder she's captured these nuances so perfectly, right down to the disdain for the office and the job at hand. So of course Hell is a public office drowned in tedious paperwork, but Heaven too? I look forward to Williams' version of that.
It seems Williams' take on Chinese mythology and death magic is a point of discussion (derision?) among readers. Personally, I find her portrayals interesting and familiar and see the writing as an homage to classic tropes. Some might say they're awkward, veering on cultural appropriation, though and I can see where these people are coming from. A few of her descriptions of skin, eyes, and hair seem too forced as though she tries too hard to set a specifically Chinese or East Asian tone in the writing. Her descriptions and metaphors of buildings, streets, offices, and tea, however, paint a nice picture of Chen's adventures.
Williams has done her research for this book and seems to be very familiar with beliefs and practices of death ceremonials, and she tied many of the elaborate beliefs neatly into character development and the practices, into plotting. Having these traditions show up at various points in the book help to explain to otherwise clueless readers the long-winded processes of death, the afterlife, reincarnation, and the connections between Heaven and Hell. I think Williams did an admirable job incorporating so many intricate pieces of Chinese folktale and mythology together to tell a colorful story.
A point where I think Williams' writing shines
* * * * *
Cross-posted at https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...
Not many books have moments that both intrigue and disgust me at the same time. And not many books present these moments back to back with little respite in between for squeamish readers to settle their stomachs. That is to say this book is not a good lunch break read.
On the back cover:
John Constantine meets Chow Yun-Fat in this near-future occult thriller!
I don't usually read cover blurbs anymore because of gimmicky taglines, but this one is a hilarious and accurate description of how I pictured Chen.
Detective Chen Wei works for the Singapore Three police department and oversees supernaturally related investigations. He's also Earth's liaison between Heaven and Hell. Anything weird or out of the ordinary that usually ends in homicide gets sent to Chen's desk, but judging by the amount of weirdness and extraordinary things happening in Singapore Three, it's odd not to see the whole police department trained as supernatural specialists. We don't see or learn much about Heaven in this book (we do in the next one), but we do get to go to Hell, several times over (all puns intended?).
"I'm going to need a leave of absence."
"To do what?"
"Go to Hell, sir."
There was a short pregnant pause, then Sung said, "You nicked my line, Detective."
The case is a puzzling one that's much more than it seems. A young girl from a prominent family has died of mysterious circumstances and now her ghost is missing. Ghosts don't usually go missing; they go to either Heaven or Hell. So the girl's mother comes to Chen for help to send her ghost on its way to Heaven, where she thinks her daughter belongs. Chen agrees to look into the matter, but finds almost nothing to go on. Then he finds out there's trouble at the family home and that the family may have questionable ties to Hell. That's when things get weird but in a fun, intriguing way.
The story is set some time in the very near future, and the location of Singapore Three is not mentioned specifically, but we can assume it's where Singapore is. What is mentioned is that the city has a large urban expanse, lively cityscape, coastal region, and a very humid, soggy rain season.
The cast of supporting characters are well developed and easy to like, and they add a lot of color to the plots and dialogues.
- Inari, Chen's wholesome but slightly naive wife and a Hell runaway who's trying to settle into her new life with Chen on earth (and their houseboat).
- The Badger / teakettle is her faithful servant and a grumpy, disgruntled spin on the helpful animal sidekick trope.
- Seneschal Zhu Irzh, an investigator from Hell and Vice (same difference, really), who has been assigned to investigate Hell's side of Chen's missing ghost girl case.
- Sargent Ma of Singapore Three PD is a squeamish cop who views Chen with suspicion and wants nothing to do with the supernatural, least of all Hell.
- Lao, the PD's exorcist and Chen's good friend, who's naturally suspicious of all things Hell and occasionally makes quippy remarks.
- Captain Sung is head of the PD and your average by-the-book, but slightly embattled, leader because he has to deal with Hell occasionally.
And a few more characters too spoilery to mention.
The idea of Heaven and Hell as bureaucracies is amusing to me, and like all dysfunctional bureaucracies, they each have their own versions of petty power struggles and office politics. I find Liz Williams' takes on the denizens of Hell who are stuck in these mind-numbing, paper-pushing thankless jobs just hilarious... and so real. Given that Williams' background as an ambassador's underling, it's no wonder she's captured these nuances so perfectly, right down to the disdain for the office and the job at hand. So of course Hell is a public office drowned in tedious paperwork, but Heaven too? I look forward to Williams' version of that.
It seems Williams' take on Chinese mythology and death magic is a point of discussion (derision?) among readers. Personally, I find her portrayals interesting and familiar and see the writing as an homage to classic tropes. Some might say they're awkward, veering on cultural appropriation, though and I can see where these people are coming from. A few of her descriptions of skin, eyes, and hair seem too forced as though she tries too hard to set a specifically Chinese or East Asian tone in the writing. Her descriptions and metaphors of buildings, streets, offices, and tea, however, paint a nice picture of Chen's adventures.
Williams has done her research for this book and seems to be very familiar with beliefs and practices of death ceremonials, and she tied many of the elaborate beliefs neatly into character development and the practices, into plotting. Having these traditions show up at various points in the book help to explain to otherwise clueless readers the long-winded processes of death, the afterlife, reincarnation, and the connections between Heaven and Hell. I think Williams did an admirable job incorporating so many intricate pieces of Chinese folktale and mythology together to tell a colorful story.
A point where I think Williams' writing shines
It was just past six, and the sun was already sinking down over the port in a smear of fire. Chen boarded the first available tram, and stood in the midst of a packed crowd of commuters, noting the exhaustion that seemed to hang like a miasma over each figure. No wonder people seemed to have so little time these days to devote themselves to considerations of the afterlife, Chen reflected, and no wonder Hell was getting out of hand. Even twenty years ago it was still common to see the small shrines outside each door, and for old people to speak of the gods as real, living presences. Now, paradoxically, the other worlds were closer than they had been since ancient times; with new technology to speed up all manner of communication, yet people seemed to take less and less interest in spiritual matters. Perhaps it was simply too much to bear, Chen thought; perhaps it was too much to ask of people to concern themselves with something other than the daily grind. Whatever the reason, it did not make his work any easier.
* * * * *
Cross-posted at https://covers2covers.wordpress.com/2...
March 19, 2012
Update (19 March 2012)
For a science fiction story with truly authentic Chinese elements, check out "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" from Clarkesworld. Very highly recommended.
Original Review
Ah, Haw Par Villa. Such fond memories I have it. It used to be known also as Tiger Balm Gardens, and was built by the Haw Par brothers, the makers of Tiger Balm:
As an act of civic goodness, the Haw Par brothers constructed Haw Par Villa. It’s a lovely little theme park in Singapore. Here, you’ll find dioramas of Chinese legends like The Journey to the West. Of course, the most well-known and beloved set of dioramas are the ones that depict the Ten Courts of Hell.
As a little kid, I was taken there on a school field trip. At the Ten Courts of Hell exhibit, I saw:
▪ Drug addicts and tomb raiders getting roasted on a red-hot copper pillar
[image error]
▪ Souls being sawn in half as punishment for wasting food
[image error]
▪ Fraudsters and tax dodgers being pounded by a giant pestle
[image error]
It scared the shit out of me.
So imagine my delight when I discovered this series by Liz Williams, written based on this whole idea of Heaven and Hell, Chinese-style. Way cool! And, yeah, I liked it. I’m sort of veering between three and four stars, but I think it really only deserves three. The setting was great fun—Williams imagines a franchise city called Singapore Three in a world where the walls between Heaven, Hell, and Earth are somewhat more porous and visible. Instead of a gun, our hero carries around a rosary. No, that kind:
This kind:
And there’s all the chanting of Buddhist mantras, eight-sided feng shui mirrors, paper talismans…
[image error]
The only problem was, well, it was all old wine in new wine skins, or as the Chinese put it, “wearing new shoes to walk the same old path” (穿新鞋走老路). Remove all the nifty fantasy elements and change the setting to Los Angeles with good cop-bad cop going after a drug lord (instead of a hell lord) and you could tell the same story. It’d play out no differently. You have the “maverick cop & straight-laced cop” pairing right out from Starsky and Hutch or Moonlighting (Chen and Zhu); you have the “newbie & old-hand” / “sceptic & believer” pairing (Ma and Chen, Ma and No Ro Shi) for all those inconvenient times when you need to do an exposition dump; you even have the bad girl turned good girl trope (Inari, Chen’s demon wife). Even the whole intra-departmental dynamic between Chen and his boss? Right out of an American movie.
Still, it was fun. As a police procedural, it was efficiently crafted, with brisk plotting and very decently executed set pieces. Based on this, I’m definitely going to check out the rest of the series.
For a science fiction story with truly authentic Chinese elements, check out "A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight" from Clarkesworld. Very highly recommended.
Original Review
Ah, Haw Par Villa. Such fond memories I have it. It used to be known also as Tiger Balm Gardens, and was built by the Haw Par brothers, the makers of Tiger Balm:
As an act of civic goodness, the Haw Par brothers constructed Haw Par Villa. It’s a lovely little theme park in Singapore. Here, you’ll find dioramas of Chinese legends like The Journey to the West. Of course, the most well-known and beloved set of dioramas are the ones that depict the Ten Courts of Hell.
As a little kid, I was taken there on a school field trip. At the Ten Courts of Hell exhibit, I saw:
▪ Drug addicts and tomb raiders getting roasted on a red-hot copper pillar
[image error]
▪ Souls being sawn in half as punishment for wasting food
[image error]
▪ Fraudsters and tax dodgers being pounded by a giant pestle
[image error]
It scared the shit out of me.
So imagine my delight when I discovered this series by Liz Williams, written based on this whole idea of Heaven and Hell, Chinese-style. Way cool! And, yeah, I liked it. I’m sort of veering between three and four stars, but I think it really only deserves three. The setting was great fun—Williams imagines a franchise city called Singapore Three in a world where the walls between Heaven, Hell, and Earth are somewhat more porous and visible. Instead of a gun, our hero carries around a rosary. No, that kind:
This kind:
And there’s all the chanting of Buddhist mantras, eight-sided feng shui mirrors, paper talismans…
[image error]
The only problem was, well, it was all old wine in new wine skins, or as the Chinese put it, “wearing new shoes to walk the same old path” (穿新鞋走老路). Remove all the nifty fantasy elements and change the setting to Los Angeles with good cop-bad cop going after a drug lord (instead of a hell lord) and you could tell the same story. It’d play out no differently. You have the “maverick cop & straight-laced cop” pairing right out from Starsky and Hutch or Moonlighting (Chen and Zhu); you have the “newbie & old-hand” / “sceptic & believer” pairing (Ma and Chen, Ma and No Ro Shi) for all those inconvenient times when you need to do an exposition dump; you even have the bad girl turned good girl trope (Inari, Chen’s demon wife). Even the whole intra-departmental dynamic between Chen and his boss? Right out of an American movie.
Still, it was fun. As a police procedural, it was efficiently crafted, with brisk plotting and very decently executed set pieces. Based on this, I’m definitely going to check out the rest of the series.
April 27, 2008
I really really liked this book! There were some consistency problems with the end of it, but the journey was innovative. The world is really interesting, and the book combined several genres together with very good success! Refreshing to read an urban paranormal book without a tough-as-nails but emotionally-fragile heroine :) I'll be picking up the others!
December 4, 2013
It is unfair to any author to wander into a book expecting something and then being disappointed when it's not delivered but I'm human and I can't help it. Reading this book, I had hoped to read something like Barry Hughart's adventures with Master Li and Number Ten Ox (Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was et al.) or Robert van Gulik's Judge Dee stories (Judge Dee at Work: Eight Chinese Detective Stories et al.), except in this case the celestial and infernal bureaucracies are real. Or a mystery along the lines of Colin Cotterill's Sari Paiboun novels, where a Laotian coroner is the reincarnated soul of a Hmong shaman. With Hughart and Cotterill there's a spritely, lyrical quality to their writing that makes you believe (or want to believe) that what you're reading could really happen; van Gulik delivers interesting, Holmesian whodunits solved by a character I find delightfully fascinating.
Liz Williams manages to create moderately interesting characters but I didn't find the story terribly interesting or the execution distinctive enough to make the work stand out. The two chief characters are Chen Wei and Zhu Irzh. Chen's the human, and his dearest wish is to be just an average cop allowed to do his job with a minimum of interference from mundane or spiritual powers. Unfortunately, little in his life conduces to this aim: He has a near unique access a rapport with Heaven and Hell and he's married a fugitive demon (Inari) who hides out on his houseboat with her family's familiar - a spirit that alternates between posing as a tea kettle and ambling about as a badger). There's little explanation for Chen's uniqueness but I can put up with ignorance so long as it doesn't interfere with understanding the storyline. Besides, it's a series and presumably readers who continue to follow Chen and Zhu will have more revealed to them.
Zhu Irzh holds a similar position as Chen in the hierarchy of Hell - a middle-level functionary who'd like to get his job done without crossing the paths of his superiors too often. In many ways, Zhu was a disappointment. As Williams portrays him, he's a typical, swashbuckling rogue in the tradition of D'Artagnan and Han Solo. Essentially a human with strange eyes and a pointed tail. It would have been more interesting and challenging if his character really had been demonic and he became Chen's "friend" (or at least "ally") because of the logic of that nature. Not because he's been "infected" with a conscience as is intimated at one point in the book. This is one of the strengths in C.J. Cherryh's Pride of Chanur series: Pyanfar manipulates the unique psychology of the kif to get them into the Compact and obeying its rules; they're not just humans with prosthetic foreheads a la "Star Trek."
I could raise a similar objection to Inari, Chen's demonic wife. She's basically a human woman escaping an arranged marriage.
Without giving away too much, the story revolves around Chen and Zhu uncovering an unsanctioned plot by the Ministry of Epidemics to unleash a plague against humanity using stolen human souls (many intended for Heaven). It's not a bad plot but not especially remarkable, and Williams invokes a couple of deae ex machina (Kuan Yin and the Goddess of Plagues) to bring everything to a happy conclusion, which I found unsatisfactory.
I like Williams. It's been years since I read it, but I remember really enjoying Empire of Bones and saying to myself, "I'd like to see more of her stuff" but I don't think she's at her best in this book. I may pick up the further adventures of Inspector Chen if there's opportunity but they're "brain candy" - something to read when I need a break from "serious" novels or nonfiction.
Liz Williams manages to create moderately interesting characters but I didn't find the story terribly interesting or the execution distinctive enough to make the work stand out. The two chief characters are Chen Wei and Zhu Irzh. Chen's the human, and his dearest wish is to be just an average cop allowed to do his job with a minimum of interference from mundane or spiritual powers. Unfortunately, little in his life conduces to this aim: He has a near unique access a rapport with Heaven and Hell and he's married a fugitive demon (Inari) who hides out on his houseboat with her family's familiar - a spirit that alternates between posing as a tea kettle and ambling about as a badger). There's little explanation for Chen's uniqueness but I can put up with ignorance so long as it doesn't interfere with understanding the storyline. Besides, it's a series and presumably readers who continue to follow Chen and Zhu will have more revealed to them.
Zhu Irzh holds a similar position as Chen in the hierarchy of Hell - a middle-level functionary who'd like to get his job done without crossing the paths of his superiors too often. In many ways, Zhu was a disappointment. As Williams portrays him, he's a typical, swashbuckling rogue in the tradition of D'Artagnan and Han Solo. Essentially a human with strange eyes and a pointed tail. It would have been more interesting and challenging if his character really had been demonic and he became Chen's "friend" (or at least "ally") because of the logic of that nature. Not because he's been "infected" with a conscience as is intimated at one point in the book. This is one of the strengths in C.J. Cherryh's Pride of Chanur series: Pyanfar manipulates the unique psychology of the kif to get them into the Compact and obeying its rules; they're not just humans with prosthetic foreheads a la "Star Trek."
I could raise a similar objection to Inari, Chen's demonic wife. She's basically a human woman escaping an arranged marriage.
Without giving away too much, the story revolves around Chen and Zhu uncovering an unsanctioned plot by the Ministry of Epidemics to unleash a plague against humanity using stolen human souls (many intended for Heaven). It's not a bad plot but not especially remarkable, and Williams invokes a couple of deae ex machina (Kuan Yin and the Goddess of Plagues) to bring everything to a happy conclusion, which I found unsatisfactory.
I like Williams. It's been years since I read it, but I remember really enjoying Empire of Bones and saying to myself, "I'd like to see more of her stuff" but I don't think she's at her best in this book. I may pick up the further adventures of Inspector Chen if there's opportunity but they're "brain candy" - something to read when I need a break from "serious" novels or nonfiction.
March 29, 2020
I was immediately drawn into this series by Liz Williams. Partly because of the enthusiastic reviews by my GR Friends, carol and Mimi. and, also by the way Williams quickly got my attention by the world-building and the well-drawn character of Detective Inspector Chen.
Williams imagines a world of the future where a metropolis can be franchised. D. I. Chen is the go—to person when demons and Chinese mysticism are involved with crime in Singapore Three. There are many familiar elements in this world including the shell of Mao’s People’s Republic of China that still maintains governmental control. Yet, both technology and the ancient Chinese beliefs play freely in this world and the afterworlds are also open for Chen’s involvement.
If the reader is unwilling to fully buy into this fantasy it will become somewhat of a slog. Williams shows us the technology of science fiction wrapping around the horror of demons and demi-gods which encase the mystery (mysteries) that Chen must solve.
To do so, he must frequently honor his own personal god and deal with the bureaucracy of Hell to track the soul of a young girl who should have be destined for Heaven. Be prepared for Williams going full out with description such as the following: “Chen could only see part of his face, but it was puffy and mottled with disease. An ulcerated laceration marred one distended cheek…The personage’s clothes were impressive enough: a thick mantle of human hair soft and blond as corn silk, hung over a cloak of pink and living flesh…(he) could have counted every tiny capillary and vein that meadered across the cloak, like rivers across the surface of a map.”
Here are some of the things that I appreciated about Williams’ novel:
- She shows great respect for the ancient Chinese values and religious practices;
- She gives the reader a very imaginative view of a Hell and a Heaven;
- Her main characters are distinctive and appealing; and,
- There is a “yuck factor” but there is no indulgence in violence just for “the fun of it”
Chen is an action-oriented detective who has carved out a domain that few would want. His boss is happy to let him do those paranormal investigations and the reader is right there for one bizarre event after another. We also get to meet an exorcist with chronic back pain, and a tea kettle that can morph into a badger and a demon seneschal who finds himself both allied with Chen and at odds with him. It’s a very satisfactory start to a series.
Williams imagines a world of the future where a metropolis can be franchised. D. I. Chen is the go—to person when demons and Chinese mysticism are involved with crime in Singapore Three. There are many familiar elements in this world including the shell of Mao’s People’s Republic of China that still maintains governmental control. Yet, both technology and the ancient Chinese beliefs play freely in this world and the afterworlds are also open for Chen’s involvement.
If the reader is unwilling to fully buy into this fantasy it will become somewhat of a slog. Williams shows us the technology of science fiction wrapping around the horror of demons and demi-gods which encase the mystery (mysteries) that Chen must solve.
To do so, he must frequently honor his own personal god and deal with the bureaucracy of Hell to track the soul of a young girl who should have be destined for Heaven. Be prepared for Williams going full out with description such as the following: “Chen could only see part of his face, but it was puffy and mottled with disease. An ulcerated laceration marred one distended cheek…The personage’s clothes were impressive enough: a thick mantle of human hair soft and blond as corn silk, hung over a cloak of pink and living flesh…(he) could have counted every tiny capillary and vein that meadered across the cloak, like rivers across the surface of a map.”
Here are some of the things that I appreciated about Williams’ novel:
- She shows great respect for the ancient Chinese values and religious practices;
- She gives the reader a very imaginative view of a Hell and a Heaven;
- Her main characters are distinctive and appealing; and,
- There is a “yuck factor” but there is no indulgence in violence just for “the fun of it”
Chen is an action-oriented detective who has carved out a domain that few would want. His boss is happy to let him do those paranormal investigations and the reader is right there for one bizarre event after another. We also get to meet an exorcist with chronic back pain, and a tea kettle that can morph into a badger and a demon seneschal who finds himself both allied with Chen and at odds with him. It’s a very satisfactory start to a series.
August 8, 2009
I was born and raised Roman Catholic, so despite my atheism I have demons ingrained in my consciousness.
I'm talking about literal demons here. Demons with tails and horns and leathery wings, demons of sublime beauty and terrible mien, demons that torment and corrupt. It doesn't matter that I no longer believe in the concepts of good and evil; it doesn't matter that demons are fiction; they are so deeply programmed into me that there is no escaping their intimate hold on portions of my imagination.
So considering my preconceptions of demons, which are predictably Western European, my time spent with Detective Inspector Chen was never likely to be trouble free. I don’t know exactly what trouble I was expecting, but I was surprised to discover that the trouble, if it can be called trouble, came from Liz Williams’ demons feeling shame.
Demons, the way I’ve always imagined them, feel no shame. Indeed, they are shameless creatures of villainy, cruelty, nastiness. They terrorize, torture and punish, delighting in their heartlessness. Clearly my conception of demons is the conception on the walls and ceilings of churches or the popular culture of Christianity.
Thus when Zhu Irzh or Inari showed signs of shame, or when Inari’s brother Tso was motivated by shame, I reacted with annoyance and even tossed the book aside with a snort. But I knew that my reaction was purely emotional, and I found myself considering the idea of demons and shame for most of the day; it didn’t take long for me to see what Williams was doing – and even to absorb it into my personal mythology of demons.
After all, demons being intimately acquainted with shame makes perfect sense.
Those humans who go to Hell, after all, go to Hell to feel shame. No matter their crime, no matter if Hell is eternal or transitory, no matter their punishment, they go to Hell to learn or feel shame. And it doesn’t matter what religion’s Hell one’s talking about. If there is a Hell, it is a place for shame.
Now, if this is a truism of Hell, something we can all agree upon, then demon characters must be able to feel shame. If a demon is to exploit the shame of a human or cause shame in a human, they must be able to understand shame in all its forms, and the only way to do that is to know shame personally.
My brain got that, and I went straight back to reading Snake Agent, but my gut still reacted every time a Demon felt shame, and I fear that my gut got in the way of my fully enjoying of Liz Williams’ creativity, which is one of the reasons I look so forward to The Demon and the City. Once I have had time to fully integrate shame in the world of Singapore Three into my gut, I am sure that I will be able to better appreciate the implausible, surreal, stickily humid Hell Noir landscapes that Detective Inspector Chen and his partner Seneschal Zhu Irzh inhabit.
And if it improves as much as I think it will, this series should become my must read, must buy, must share piece of pulpy goodness.
Previously written: I was surprised by how much I liked this book, and I have much to say about shame in demons, but that will have to wait for another day, maybe even for the next book. I will be going on with this series, though, and soon. It is definitely good enough for that.
I'm talking about literal demons here. Demons with tails and horns and leathery wings, demons of sublime beauty and terrible mien, demons that torment and corrupt. It doesn't matter that I no longer believe in the concepts of good and evil; it doesn't matter that demons are fiction; they are so deeply programmed into me that there is no escaping their intimate hold on portions of my imagination.
So considering my preconceptions of demons, which are predictably Western European, my time spent with Detective Inspector Chen was never likely to be trouble free. I don’t know exactly what trouble I was expecting, but I was surprised to discover that the trouble, if it can be called trouble, came from Liz Williams’ demons feeling shame.
Demons, the way I’ve always imagined them, feel no shame. Indeed, they are shameless creatures of villainy, cruelty, nastiness. They terrorize, torture and punish, delighting in their heartlessness. Clearly my conception of demons is the conception on the walls and ceilings of churches or the popular culture of Christianity.
Thus when Zhu Irzh or Inari showed signs of shame, or when Inari’s brother Tso was motivated by shame, I reacted with annoyance and even tossed the book aside with a snort. But I knew that my reaction was purely emotional, and I found myself considering the idea of demons and shame for most of the day; it didn’t take long for me to see what Williams was doing – and even to absorb it into my personal mythology of demons.
After all, demons being intimately acquainted with shame makes perfect sense.
Those humans who go to Hell, after all, go to Hell to feel shame. No matter their crime, no matter if Hell is eternal or transitory, no matter their punishment, they go to Hell to learn or feel shame. And it doesn’t matter what religion’s Hell one’s talking about. If there is a Hell, it is a place for shame.
Now, if this is a truism of Hell, something we can all agree upon, then demon characters must be able to feel shame. If a demon is to exploit the shame of a human or cause shame in a human, they must be able to understand shame in all its forms, and the only way to do that is to know shame personally.
My brain got that, and I went straight back to reading Snake Agent, but my gut still reacted every time a Demon felt shame, and I fear that my gut got in the way of my fully enjoying of Liz Williams’ creativity, which is one of the reasons I look so forward to The Demon and the City. Once I have had time to fully integrate shame in the world of Singapore Three into my gut, I am sure that I will be able to better appreciate the implausible, surreal, stickily humid Hell Noir landscapes that Detective Inspector Chen and his partner Seneschal Zhu Irzh inhabit.
And if it improves as much as I think it will, this series should become my must read, must buy, must share piece of pulpy goodness.
Previously written: I was surprised by how much I liked this book, and I have much to say about shame in demons, but that will have to wait for another day, maybe even for the next book. I will be going on with this series, though, and soon. It is definitely good enough for that.
November 18, 2016
Really enjoyed this. Was a little slow to get going, but I kept going because the concept interested me: a future China police procedural with ghosts and demons and a really intriguing afterlife and magic system. There are also some truly creepy developments in communications/networking technology.
Main character Detective Inspector Chen is a respectful, hardworking guy whose colleagues are very uncomfortable with him because Chen handles the cases involving ghosts and incursions of aspects of the afterlife into the world.. Chen also has a goddess as his patron, and as we find out later, a demon for a wife. (Inari interested me--her love of storms, how she was coping with life on Earth...she and Chen seem to genuinely care for each other. I'm so used to detective stories where the main character is a drunk with a failed marriage, who seems almost to stumble into cases and clues.)
The afterlife is made up of Heaven and Hell, and the intermediate stage before one moves on to either the former or the latter. That's a simplistic description of what the author has described in this book. We don't get much detail on Heaven except that it's beautiful, peaceful. Hell is where the action is, and where much of this story takes place. There are hierarchies, Ministries responsible for running life in Hell, forms to fill out (the bureaucracy made me laugh--of course there's paperwork!), and just so much happening. The conflicts between Ministers and the ministries certainly felt believable, remembering feuding directors and business units at a corporation I worked at in the past.
Chen is assigned to a case that pretty quickly transforms into something pretty serious and dangerous. Along the way, he encounters a detective of the Vice unit from Hell--Hell has Vice detectives! : ) The two begin working together and there's a lot of magic and blood and detecting and dealing with in-laws and jilted fiances. And gods, who are terrifying and demanding.
And I forgot to mention the tea kettle -- I want one like that.
I'd never heard of this series till recently, but picked up this book based on some reviews (and it doesn't hurt to check out the shelves at the library in the hope of finding good stories.)
I'll be checking out further instalments in this series.
Main character Detective Inspector Chen is a respectful, hardworking guy whose colleagues are very uncomfortable with him because Chen handles the cases involving ghosts and incursions of aspects of the afterlife into the world.. Chen also has a goddess as his patron, and as we find out later, a demon for a wife. (Inari interested me--her love of storms, how she was coping with life on Earth...she and Chen seem to genuinely care for each other. I'm so used to detective stories where the main character is a drunk with a failed marriage, who seems almost to stumble into cases and clues.)
The afterlife is made up of Heaven and Hell, and the intermediate stage before one moves on to either the former or the latter. That's a simplistic description of what the author has described in this book. We don't get much detail on Heaven except that it's beautiful, peaceful. Hell is where the action is, and where much of this story takes place. There are hierarchies, Ministries responsible for running life in Hell, forms to fill out (the bureaucracy made me laugh--of course there's paperwork!), and just so much happening. The conflicts between Ministers and the ministries certainly felt believable, remembering feuding directors and business units at a corporation I worked at in the past.
Chen is assigned to a case that pretty quickly transforms into something pretty serious and dangerous. Along the way, he encounters a detective of the Vice unit from Hell--Hell has Vice detectives! : ) The two begin working together and there's a lot of magic and blood and detecting and dealing with in-laws and jilted fiances. And gods, who are terrifying and demanding.
And I forgot to mention the tea kettle -- I want one like that.
I'd never heard of this series till recently, but picked up this book based on some reviews (and it doesn't hurt to check out the shelves at the library in the hope of finding good stories.)
I'll be checking out further instalments in this series.
January 13, 2015
Snake Agent is a combination of so many great things that it would be really hard not to find at least one or two things to like.
At its core it is an urban fantasy set in near future that takes place in Singapore. Number three. You see there are more of those and this one is just as crowded and corrupted as any other.
Then it's science fiction. People use something called bioweb, and a young person can earn a lot of money acting as nexus. This is not just thrown in there just for the sake of info dumping. All throughout the book, there are mentions of bioweb and biolinks, and they do have an important place in the story.
Then you get a bit of a horror too (lower levels of Hell sound interesting). Not as much as I'd like, but the possibilities for future books are there. It seems that every place in one realm has its correlating place in others. They are not identical though.
You even get a bit of romance, but I'd rather it didn't. While I do read romance, this book honestly didn't need it at all.
The world-building is extraordinary. Hell, Heaven and Earth are connected. It doesn't matter if there are some who don't believe in afterlife, the afterlife is there anyway. You need immigration visas to enter those realms if you are alive. Hell has its own ministries: War, Flesh, Earthquakes, Epidemics, Lust and so on. There are agents working on all three sides, though the Celestial one was neglected in this book. Not a great loss because you get to meet the Vice Division agent Zhu Irzh.
The protagonists are not the only colourful characters in this book. I loved the First Lord of Banking, the demon lord who gave Zhu Irzh the assignment.
There are those that grow and change in the book like Sargent Ma, who has to overcome his upbringing even to speak to Chan because of his connection to Hell.
And, now the nitpicks: I hate love triangles with passion and there was this cloud of one threatening my reading experience for quite a large part of the book. The resolution was tepid at best ('oh, now that I've mentioned something like that, I'll just add or mention another character') and the worst thing about it is that it doesn't add anything to the story. It's not a game changer. Fortunately, it's not that pronounced.
Then there is the might leave for my lover's good trope. That too was just swept under the rug. Unnecessary also.
I loved this book and I haven't even scratched the surface here.
At its core it is an urban fantasy set in near future that takes place in Singapore. Number three. You see there are more of those and this one is just as crowded and corrupted as any other.
Then it's science fiction. People use something called bioweb, and a young person can earn a lot of money acting as nexus. This is not just thrown in there just for the sake of info dumping. All throughout the book, there are mentions of bioweb and biolinks, and they do have an important place in the story.
Then you get a bit of a horror too (lower levels of Hell sound interesting). Not as much as I'd like, but the possibilities for future books are there. It seems that every place in one realm has its correlating place in others. They are not identical though.
You even get a bit of romance, but I'd rather it didn't. While I do read romance, this book honestly didn't need it at all.
The world-building is extraordinary. Hell, Heaven and Earth are connected. It doesn't matter if there are some who don't believe in afterlife, the afterlife is there anyway. You need immigration visas to enter those realms if you are alive. Hell has its own ministries: War, Flesh, Earthquakes, Epidemics, Lust and so on. There are agents working on all three sides, though the Celestial one was neglected in this book. Not a great loss because you get to meet the Vice Division agent Zhu Irzh.
'That uncomfortable, nagging, sensation was back. He'd suffered from this on and off since childhood, like the prick of a pin inside his mind, and had even gone so far as t visit a remedy maker. What had the old man called it? Conscience, or some such - a human disease, anyway, and there was apparently nothing that could be done about it.'The protagonist Detective Inspector Wei Chen, protege of a goddess Kuan Yin and someone who is connected to both Earth and Hell, ends up working with a demon cop.
' "You don't really want to do this, Zhu Irzh." "Are you accusing me of having principles?" the demon said, outraged.'A young girl died and her mother found out that she ended up in Hell.
'Usually, if you die in a normal manner, an officer comes to you with a warrant, and takes you to the Night Harbor, which is where the boat leaves for the other worlds.'Chen would soon realize that ghost's disappearance is only a small piece of a greater and much more dangerous puzzle.
The protagonists are not the only colourful characters in this book. I loved the First Lord of Banking, the demon lord who gave Zhu Irzh the assignment.
There are those that grow and change in the book like Sargent Ma, who has to overcome his upbringing even to speak to Chan because of his connection to Hell.
And, now the nitpicks: I hate love triangles with passion and there was this cloud of one threatening my reading experience for quite a large part of the book. The resolution was tepid at best ('oh, now that I've mentioned something like that, I'll just add or mention another character') and the worst thing about it is that it doesn't add anything to the story. It's not a game changer. Fortunately, it's not that pronounced.
Then there is the might leave for my lover's good trope. That too was just swept under the rug. Unnecessary also.
I loved this book and I haven't even scratched the surface here.
January 6, 2016
I wanted to love this book, I really did, but I am only giving it three stars instead of two because of the originality. I enjoyed some of it and hated other parts of it. I'm very frustrated with the author and can't believe it was written by an educated Western woman. But more on that later.
The good parts are the unusual premise: the detective, Chen, lives in a technologically advanced futuristic Shanghai as a supernatural detective, investigating those cases that involve demons, ghosts and the like. (Excellent to have a spec fic story written in English that takes place in another city and culture on Earth than Western!) He has occasion to go down to Hell sometimes which is as complex as the Earth. He has a patron Buddhist goddess, Quan Yin, who helps him out on occasion. I like the Buddhist stuff but wanted more and felt it was a little weak. This fusion of fantasy and science fiction is clever and interesting. The problem is in the execution.
There is lots of action and a fairly fast pace and the book opens with the hero in peril suspended in mid-air with a demon by his side. Sounds good so far but there are problems which weigh it down. The main character is boring and staid, way too much so for someone in his line of work, I think. I didn't find myself caring that much about him. I also didn't think he was that consistent. Sometimes he would comment on a demon's behavior as being bad (something pretty mild) and then later he would do something much worse. There was a cool hellion, a badger, who was interesting, although he was never explained.
Hell is supposed to be kind of an opposite to Earth (which doesn't make sense when there is a Heaven, too) and there a very complicated way souls get there (people have two souls and both move around a lot). But the reality is that Hell is much like Earth only a little nastier and more bureaucratic with a lot of magic thrown in. Again, I found the depiction inconsistent: sometimes the reader is told that everyone from Hell is evil and you can't depend on them, and then they act in ways that are fairly virtuous and the most likable character of all is Chen's demon partner, Zhu Irch.
The really odd thing was that from the very first page I felt that I was reading a book that was actually a sequel. The back story was a huge part of why things happen in this book and it just felt like they were speaking about stuff that happened as though the reader should already know. I found myself checking more than once to see that it was actually book 1.
But by far the worst thing is the really pronounced sexism. I could understand and even tolerate it if it were clear this were a product of the sexist Chinese society or part of why Hell were evil. But the women in the book were weak and vapid. The *only* two females with jobs were a receptionist and a secretary, both completely idiotic and ineffectual. Everyone else in the ministries, precinct and stores were men. At one point a character notices a female (demon of course) assisting some laborers and he is completely surprised. Later the author refers to her as the "female helper" much like white people always point out race when it's not their own. Even China nowadays has a much more egalitarian workforce. Women are construction workers and day laborers and do all sorts of typically male jobs. There is no indication the Shanghai of the future has been set back socially, it's supposed to be modern. Wouldn't women's rights have stayed the same if not progressed even a little bit?
There are very few female characters in the book and only two which make any kind of long term appearance: the goddess Quan Yin and Chen's weak and pathetic demon wife Inari. At one point she thinks to herself how ridiculous it is that men are always saving her and she vows to do better but it continues. (The only time she saves herself is when she runs away but even then someone else always rescues her or captures her because she is lost.) The sentence felt like an after thought because the author received criticism about it. At one point Chen (a human) and another demon struggle to move a huge piece of jade. Demons have superhuman strength but Inari just sits off to the side trembling. I wanted to throw up. Plus, she is kept in a houseboat and Chen is upset when she leaves it for any reason. What kind of life is that? It's the kind of thing abusive husbands do to their wives. It's positively revolting.
My other complaints are minor: pits of blood in hell come from "adulterers and abortionists." (Of course, in the book menstrual blood is a particularly hellish thing, too.) The author also has some weird metaphors that don't really work like when something "ringed a room like a migraine." Hunh? I have migraines several times a week and I don't understand the metaphor. Migraines are on one side of the head usually and are a stabbing, throbbing pain. They don't ring anything. They're not like tension headaches which can feel like a band is tightening around your head. In fact, the closest analogy is an icepick stabbed through your eye. Another weird one was when the night sky was like "illuminated dark glass." Er, what?
Another problem was that about a third of the way in, the detectives discover a truly heinous practice that they believe is the center of the mystery and that they need to figure out. It not only turns out not to be the center but not even related and they never bother to find out who is doing it or how to stop it. They don't ever even bring it up again. BIG plot hole.
Overall the writing was good, the plot carried along fine, and the characterization of the demon detective and other police officers was good. However the main character and his wife were inconsistent and confusing and the sexism was really irritating. I doubt I will read further into the series even though the concept is intriguing and I do want to know more.
The good parts are the unusual premise: the detective, Chen, lives in a technologically advanced futuristic Shanghai as a supernatural detective, investigating those cases that involve demons, ghosts and the like. (Excellent to have a spec fic story written in English that takes place in another city and culture on Earth than Western!) He has occasion to go down to Hell sometimes which is as complex as the Earth. He has a patron Buddhist goddess, Quan Yin, who helps him out on occasion. I like the Buddhist stuff but wanted more and felt it was a little weak. This fusion of fantasy and science fiction is clever and interesting. The problem is in the execution.
There is lots of action and a fairly fast pace and the book opens with the hero in peril suspended in mid-air with a demon by his side. Sounds good so far but there are problems which weigh it down. The main character is boring and staid, way too much so for someone in his line of work, I think. I didn't find myself caring that much about him. I also didn't think he was that consistent. Sometimes he would comment on a demon's behavior as being bad (something pretty mild) and then later he would do something much worse. There was a cool hellion, a badger, who was interesting, although he was never explained.
Hell is supposed to be kind of an opposite to Earth (which doesn't make sense when there is a Heaven, too) and there a very complicated way souls get there (people have two souls and both move around a lot). But the reality is that Hell is much like Earth only a little nastier and more bureaucratic with a lot of magic thrown in. Again, I found the depiction inconsistent: sometimes the reader is told that everyone from Hell is evil and you can't depend on them, and then they act in ways that are fairly virtuous and the most likable character of all is Chen's demon partner, Zhu Irch.
The really odd thing was that from the very first page I felt that I was reading a book that was actually a sequel. The back story was a huge part of why things happen in this book and it just felt like they were speaking about stuff that happened as though the reader should already know. I found myself checking more than once to see that it was actually book 1.
But by far the worst thing is the really pronounced sexism. I could understand and even tolerate it if it were clear this were a product of the sexist Chinese society or part of why Hell were evil. But the women in the book were weak and vapid. The *only* two females with jobs were a receptionist and a secretary, both completely idiotic and ineffectual. Everyone else in the ministries, precinct and stores were men. At one point a character notices a female (demon of course) assisting some laborers and he is completely surprised. Later the author refers to her as the "female helper" much like white people always point out race when it's not their own. Even China nowadays has a much more egalitarian workforce. Women are construction workers and day laborers and do all sorts of typically male jobs. There is no indication the Shanghai of the future has been set back socially, it's supposed to be modern. Wouldn't women's rights have stayed the same if not progressed even a little bit?
There are very few female characters in the book and only two which make any kind of long term appearance: the goddess Quan Yin and Chen's weak and pathetic demon wife Inari. At one point she thinks to herself how ridiculous it is that men are always saving her and she vows to do better but it continues. (The only time she saves herself is when she runs away but even then someone else always rescues her or captures her because she is lost.) The sentence felt like an after thought because the author received criticism about it. At one point Chen (a human) and another demon struggle to move a huge piece of jade. Demons have superhuman strength but Inari just sits off to the side trembling. I wanted to throw up. Plus, she is kept in a houseboat and Chen is upset when she leaves it for any reason. What kind of life is that? It's the kind of thing abusive husbands do to their wives. It's positively revolting.
My other complaints are minor: pits of blood in hell come from "adulterers and abortionists." (Of course, in the book menstrual blood is a particularly hellish thing, too.) The author also has some weird metaphors that don't really work like when something "ringed a room like a migraine." Hunh? I have migraines several times a week and I don't understand the metaphor. Migraines are on one side of the head usually and are a stabbing, throbbing pain. They don't ring anything. They're not like tension headaches which can feel like a band is tightening around your head. In fact, the closest analogy is an icepick stabbed through your eye. Another weird one was when the night sky was like "illuminated dark glass." Er, what?
Another problem was that about a third of the way in, the detectives discover a truly heinous practice that they believe is the center of the mystery and that they need to figure out. It not only turns out not to be the center but not even related and they never bother to find out who is doing it or how to stop it. They don't ever even bring it up again. BIG plot hole.
Overall the writing was good, the plot carried along fine, and the characterization of the demon detective and other police officers was good. However the main character and his wife were inconsistent and confusing and the sexism was really irritating. I doubt I will read further into the series even though the concept is intriguing and I do want to know more.
June 28, 2020
I have lost count of all the urban fantasy novels that I’ve read over the years, only a fraction of which are recorded on Goodreads. After a while, the reoccurring tropes are so familiar that you can generally predict the storyline from a handful of plot points.
Snake Agent is the first urban fantasy novel that I’ve read in years which is completely different.
Author Liz Williams (whose intriguing bio states she has degrees in philosophy and artificial intelligence) has crafted a futuristic detective novel set in Asia that is influenced by Taoism and I Ching. It’s a little bit Blade Runner, a little bit The Way of Life, and a little bit Special Victims Unit, with a dash of Dante's Infero.
In the near-ish future, Detective Inspector Wei Chen is the supernatural liaison for the Singapore Three Police Department, handling cases that involve Heaven and Hell. When the ghost of a young girl bound for Heaven is discovered trapped in Hell, Chen begins an investigation that leads to the discovery of a nefarious plot that threatens millions of lives.
Chen is an interesting character; unlike the usual wisecracking loner found in these stories, he is contemplative, married, and generally mild-mannered. Thanks to his patron goddess, Kuan Yin the Compassionate, Chen can manipulate chi and has magical powers of a sort, but he is far removed from the superpowered action heroes that often populate UF novels. When the book starts, he is midway through his police career and dealing with the repercussions of defying his goddess to marry a part-demon woman. (I wish the entirety of THAT story had been told in the book; instead it is partially described in a series of flashbacks.)
The dialogue was often amusing, with plenty of diabolical puns. For example, Chen talking to police Captain Sund about the need to pursue his investigation in Hell:
“I’m going to need a leave of absence.”
“To do what?”
“Go to Hell, sir.”
There was a short pregnant pause, then Sund said “You nicked my line, Detective.”
One common police trope that the book does incorporate is that of the Unlikely Sidekick. Chen takes on a demonic partner, Seneschal Zhu Irzh, Vice Division, who was sent to earth by Hell’s First Lord of Banking (because bankers are evil, natch). Zhu was my favorite character, a debonair, scaly, gold-eyed demon who struggles with the dishonor of having (shudder) moral scruples. He drinks blood and rescues helpless maidens, all while juggling micromanaging supervisors and cranky relatives.
Much of the book takes place in Hell, so we get a fairly comprehensive description of its denizens, hierarchies, and geography. I loved how the earthly government departments had evil counterparts: in place of the Ministry of Health, there is a Ministry of Pandemics, while the Ministry of Defense is replaced with a Ministry of War. By contrast, there are only vague descriptions of Heaven, where the Jade Emperor rules over celestial fields. Perhaps because Heaven is necessarily ineffable?
With a nod to the Matrix, part of the plot features the earth’s new biotech web, which uses human beings as “nexi” to power a worldwide communications network. I found this utterly creepy, all the more so because intellectuals like Yuval Harari predict that inserting technology into humans will be the inevitable next step in computing, with a massive underclass who will be exploited by the tech giants for profit. Of course, all the nexi are women.
“…Each nexus was floating serenely in her shallow bath of nutrient fluid, wrapped in the embrace of synaptic wiring as they silently passed information to and fro…but he did not remember the commercials showing the thick tubes that penetrated the nexus’ mouth and anus, the bruising crawl of wires beneath the skin. And the eyes were open, gazing sightlessly into nothing.”
The supernatural rules could be confusing at times. Chen explains to a colleague that each person has two souls: the personality (hun) which leaves the body at death and the spirit (P’o) which remains with the body in Heaven or Hell and is ultimately reincarnated. In one scene, Zhu excises the remaining memories from a victimized ghost in Hell, so it seems like he is destroying her P’o. Can a ghost exist without its P’o? Later, we learn there is a way to use magic to suspend spirits between worlds, so does that mean these people still have both their hun and P’o? But these are fairly minor quibbles and would probably not bother most readers.
I’m grateful to Carol, whose review led me to Snake Agent. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, told from Zhu’s point of view as he assimilates to life on earth. (And if a thrilling adventure, an original world, and strong writing are not sufficient reasons for you to read this book, there is also a talking badger that turns into a teakettle.)
Snake Agent is the first urban fantasy novel that I’ve read in years which is completely different.
Author Liz Williams (whose intriguing bio states she has degrees in philosophy and artificial intelligence) has crafted a futuristic detective novel set in Asia that is influenced by Taoism and I Ching. It’s a little bit Blade Runner, a little bit The Way of Life, and a little bit Special Victims Unit, with a dash of Dante's Infero.
In the near-ish future, Detective Inspector Wei Chen is the supernatural liaison for the Singapore Three Police Department, handling cases that involve Heaven and Hell. When the ghost of a young girl bound for Heaven is discovered trapped in Hell, Chen begins an investigation that leads to the discovery of a nefarious plot that threatens millions of lives.
Chen is an interesting character; unlike the usual wisecracking loner found in these stories, he is contemplative, married, and generally mild-mannered. Thanks to his patron goddess, Kuan Yin the Compassionate, Chen can manipulate chi and has magical powers of a sort, but he is far removed from the superpowered action heroes that often populate UF novels. When the book starts, he is midway through his police career and dealing with the repercussions of defying his goddess to marry a part-demon woman. (I wish the entirety of THAT story had been told in the book; instead it is partially described in a series of flashbacks.)
The dialogue was often amusing, with plenty of diabolical puns. For example, Chen talking to police Captain Sund about the need to pursue his investigation in Hell:
“I’m going to need a leave of absence.”
“To do what?”
“Go to Hell, sir.”
There was a short pregnant pause, then Sund said “You nicked my line, Detective.”
One common police trope that the book does incorporate is that of the Unlikely Sidekick. Chen takes on a demonic partner, Seneschal Zhu Irzh, Vice Division, who was sent to earth by Hell’s First Lord of Banking (because bankers are evil, natch). Zhu was my favorite character, a debonair, scaly, gold-eyed demon who struggles with the dishonor of having (shudder) moral scruples. He drinks blood and rescues helpless maidens, all while juggling micromanaging supervisors and cranky relatives.
Much of the book takes place in Hell, so we get a fairly comprehensive description of its denizens, hierarchies, and geography. I loved how the earthly government departments had evil counterparts: in place of the Ministry of Health, there is a Ministry of Pandemics, while the Ministry of Defense is replaced with a Ministry of War. By contrast, there are only vague descriptions of Heaven, where the Jade Emperor rules over celestial fields. Perhaps because Heaven is necessarily ineffable?
With a nod to the Matrix, part of the plot features the earth’s new biotech web, which uses human beings as “nexi” to power a worldwide communications network. I found this utterly creepy, all the more so because intellectuals like Yuval Harari predict that inserting technology into humans will be the inevitable next step in computing, with a massive underclass who will be exploited by the tech giants for profit. Of course, all the nexi are women.
“…Each nexus was floating serenely in her shallow bath of nutrient fluid, wrapped in the embrace of synaptic wiring as they silently passed information to and fro…but he did not remember the commercials showing the thick tubes that penetrated the nexus’ mouth and anus, the bruising crawl of wires beneath the skin. And the eyes were open, gazing sightlessly into nothing.”
The supernatural rules could be confusing at times. Chen explains to a colleague that each person has two souls: the personality (hun) which leaves the body at death and the spirit (P’o) which remains with the body in Heaven or Hell and is ultimately reincarnated. In one scene, Zhu excises the remaining memories from a victimized ghost in Hell, so it seems like he is destroying her P’o. Can a ghost exist without its P’o? Later, we learn there is a way to use magic to suspend spirits between worlds, so does that mean these people still have both their hun and P’o? But these are fairly minor quibbles and would probably not bother most readers.
I’m grateful to Carol, whose review led me to Snake Agent. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series, told from Zhu’s point of view as he assimilates to life on earth. (And if a thrilling adventure, an original world, and strong writing are not sufficient reasons for you to read this book, there is also a talking badger that turns into a teakettle.)
February 24, 2010
Inspector Chen deals with demon crimes as his service to Kuan Yin, the Chinese goddess of mercy, women, and childbirth. She's a bit ticked off with him, though, because a year ago Chen married a demon, so in tight spots Chen doesn't always have the goddess to call on.
Now Chen is called in to investigate a girl whose ghost did not appear in Heaven when it was supposed to, despite the fact that its way was paid for. He stumbles into a plot whereby the souls of young, pure girls are being sold to demons in a kind of drug deal, a case already being worked on by a demon cop. As a team he and Chen have their bumps, and Chen is put in a heckuva spot when he realizes that he trusts his demonic partner more than his goddess or his human superiors.
It's a dark romp, if there is such a thing. I'm not really sure why it's science fiction, because the sf is only needed for the creation of human computer networks fueled by young women who grant the network part of their lives and then, supposedly, go on to live their own lives with a sizeable nest egg. (Yes, you're right to say this has "fail" written all over it.)
No wonder a bunch of people have recommended this to me. I have to get the next one!
Now Chen is called in to investigate a girl whose ghost did not appear in Heaven when it was supposed to, despite the fact that its way was paid for. He stumbles into a plot whereby the souls of young, pure girls are being sold to demons in a kind of drug deal, a case already being worked on by a demon cop. As a team he and Chen have their bumps, and Chen is put in a heckuva spot when he realizes that he trusts his demonic partner more than his goddess or his human superiors.
It's a dark romp, if there is such a thing. I'm not really sure why it's science fiction, because the sf is only needed for the creation of human computer networks fueled by young women who grant the network part of their lives and then, supposedly, go on to live their own lives with a sizeable nest egg. (Yes, you're right to say this has "fail" written all over it.)
No wonder a bunch of people have recommended this to me. I have to get the next one!
January 14, 2023
Fine memories of this series opener, which just got put high on the reread list. First read in 2005.
2020 reread: still a wonderful novel. Holds up well to re-reading. I like the mix of Chinese mythology with sfnal extrapolation. Very nicely done. 4.6 stars.
For a real review, read Carol's: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... She's read it 3 times!
2020 reread: still a wonderful novel. Holds up well to re-reading. I like the mix of Chinese mythology with sfnal extrapolation. Very nicely done. 4.6 stars.
For a real review, read Carol's: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... She's read it 3 times!
September 17, 2007
Basically, the sort of book that justifies entire genres. Love, love, love. First off, the prologue was genuinely interesting, and made me want to read the book. In general, I automatically skip prologues. Secondly, this marries myth and science in truly satisfying and creative ways. Thirdly, it has everything: Gods and demons in disguise, police procedure, uneasy alliances that turn to uneasy friendship, a man trapped between love and duty, but not in a stupid way.
The setting is the Singapore of the future, or rather, a Singapore of the future: Singapore III, of a current five. The protagonist is Detective Inspector Chen, a man who is currently somewhat in his patron goddess's bad-graces for marrying a demon against Kuan Yin wishes. It comes to the attention of the police department that certain heaven-bound souls are not arriving there, and Chen is assigned the case. This probably gives you a fair idea of what to expect.
Several minor things threw me. One, Chen's wife is named Inari, which I kept reading as "Inara." This is my own fault, but did interfere a bit in the beginning. Two, the illustration on the cover made me immediately check to see if the artist was a man, and lo, he was. [http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I... if you can spot what pinged for me. Three, I have no idea to what extent the Chinese culture and myth depicted is accurate, but it's certainly detailed enough that if it's made up, it's a master-piece of world-building. Fourth, there was the occasional bizarre intrusion of Western culture, as when Chen reflects on the applicability of the Western aphorism, "Between the Devil and the deep blue sea," to his situation. It's my experience that figures of speech from one language/culture generally make no sense whatsoever when removed from that context, and besides, surely "the Devil" would be nonsense to Chen?
These minor points aside, (and despite how I harp on them, they were very minor to my enjoyment,) this is an excellent book. It made me kick my feet in delight. Highly recommended.
The setting is the Singapore of the future, or rather, a Singapore of the future: Singapore III, of a current five. The protagonist is Detective Inspector Chen, a man who is currently somewhat in his patron goddess's bad-graces for marrying a demon against Kuan Yin wishes. It comes to the attention of the police department that certain heaven-bound souls are not arriving there, and Chen is assigned the case. This probably gives you a fair idea of what to expect.
Several minor things threw me. One, Chen's wife is named Inari, which I kept reading as "Inara." This is my own fault, but did interfere a bit in the beginning. Two, the illustration on the cover made me immediately check to see if the artist was a man, and lo, he was. [http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/I... if you can spot what pinged for me. Three, I have no idea to what extent the Chinese culture and myth depicted is accurate, but it's certainly detailed enough that if it's made up, it's a master-piece of world-building. Fourth, there was the occasional bizarre intrusion of Western culture, as when Chen reflects on the applicability of the Western aphorism, "Between the Devil and the deep blue sea," to his situation. It's my experience that figures of speech from one language/culture generally make no sense whatsoever when removed from that context, and besides, surely "the Devil" would be nonsense to Chen?
These minor points aside, (and despite how I harp on them, they were very minor to my enjoyment,) this is an excellent book. It made me kick my feet in delight. Highly recommended.
July 8, 2020
I have to confess - this is my first ever e-book (due to the fact that the entire Auckland library system doesn't seem to have one physical copy of this first book in the series, despite having multiples of all the sequels)...
I give in. It's really not as awful a reading experience as I expected. Maybe it's time to end my e-boycott for good - only for when no actual book copies are available, of course!
Anyway, the actual book itself is fantastic, I can't wait to read more of the series.
Yes - even on an e-reader!
I give in. It's really not as awful a reading experience as I expected. Maybe it's time to end my e-boycott for good - only for when no actual book copies are available, of course!
Anyway, the actual book itself is fantastic, I can't wait to read more of the series.
Yes - even on an e-reader!
January 5, 2022
4.5 stars
A richly imagined fantastical mystery noir. The world building was one of my favourite things about Snake Agent, bolstered by fascinating elements of Chinese mythology. I thought the plotting was clever, albeit sometimes at the expense of pacing. It was amusing for me to read about Chen, a very likeable deconstruction of the 'maverick cop' trope. I'd recommend this to both fantasy and mystery lovers, and I look forward to reading subsequent books in the series.
A richly imagined fantastical mystery noir. The world building was one of my favourite things about Snake Agent, bolstered by fascinating elements of Chinese mythology. I thought the plotting was clever, albeit sometimes at the expense of pacing. It was amusing for me to read about Chen, a very likeable deconstruction of the 'maverick cop' trope. I'd recommend this to both fantasy and mystery lovers, and I look forward to reading subsequent books in the series.
April 30, 2014
This story simply delighted me. It was a wild and exciting mishmash of things I love, and things that I'd forgotten than I love. At once a crime novel, neo-noir, near-future sci-fi, buddy cop story, and urban fantasy, all wrapped up in an extremely well-done and seldom seen Far Eastern setting.
I will be reading ALL of the Detective Inspector Chen novels. ALL OF THEM. Soon.
I will be reading ALL of the Detective Inspector Chen novels. ALL OF THEM. Soon.
September 24, 2007
Really fantastic fantasy/sci-fi/mystery fusion. Wei Chen is a detective in the slightly futuristic Singapore Three; his area of expertise is the supernatural, specifically dealings between Earth, Heaven, and Hell. Investigating the reappearance as a ghost of a rich girl who supposedly died of anorexia-related complications gets Chen involved with a conspiracy whose origins lie somewhere in the vast bureaucracy of Hell, and also finds him entering into a reluctant and wary partnership with a demon Vice cop, Zhu Irzh.
Unsurprisingly, I love "two mismatched people fight crime!" stories, and this one works really well. The world Williams has created is fascinating and is revealed slowly; she has a nice touch with character, too, so I wasn't bored when the action was with, say, the somewhat hapless Sergeant Ma. And I loved the parts with Chen's demon wife Inari and her badger familiar. I wish we'd been given a bit more insight into Chen's past; we're told so little that when he at one point thinks of his mother in passing, I was surprised—he has a mother? Well, of course he does, but Chen is such an enigma that these details are a little hard to pin down in one's head—we don't know how he came to serve the goddess who is his protecter, or got involved in the affairs of Hell, or came to help Inari. Zhu Irzh isn't exactly an open book, either, but he gets to display more humor and thus seems more familiar. Still, despite everything that's being kept back—possibly as fodder for future books (there are already three more), which would be awesome—the relationships between the characters were dynamic and fun, and the hint of where they're going next makes me very excited. This was a well-plotted, exciting mystery with great character interaction; I can't wait to read the next one.
Unsurprisingly, I love "two mismatched people fight crime!" stories, and this one works really well. The world Williams has created is fascinating and is revealed slowly; she has a nice touch with character, too, so I wasn't bored when the action was with, say, the somewhat hapless Sergeant Ma. And I loved the parts with Chen's demon wife Inari and her badger familiar. I wish we'd been given a bit more insight into Chen's past; we're told so little that when he at one point thinks of his mother in passing, I was surprised—he has a mother? Well, of course he does, but Chen is such an enigma that these details are a little hard to pin down in one's head—we don't know how he came to serve the goddess who is his protecter, or got involved in the affairs of Hell, or came to help Inari. Zhu Irzh isn't exactly an open book, either, but he gets to display more humor and thus seems more familiar. Still, despite everything that's being kept back—possibly as fodder for future books (there are already three more), which would be awesome—the relationships between the characters were dynamic and fun, and the hint of where they're going next makes me very excited. This was a well-plotted, exciting mystery with great character interaction; I can't wait to read the next one.
October 14, 2021
Really enjoyed the world-building in this series opener. The attention to detail made the atmosphere of both Singapore 3 (a franchise city, located somewhere in South China) and Hell seem both palpable and believable. I also appreciated the deep dive into Chinese religious beliefs and traditions, and I DEFINITELY want a teapot badger.
October 28, 2020
I liked it. Just not as much as one of my fantasy spirit guides, but it does have a lot going for it.
Like Servant of the Underworld (which I really liked) Snake Agent is not the usual Christian mythology. So Liz Williams has to do a bit of world building which she does without info dumps and the other usual missteps. Full marks.
There's a pretty simple story which takes forever to develop and mostly takes place in the last quarter of the novel. So, kind of a weak story.
There are humans, demons, gods and goddesses. This gives the opportunity for wide, divergent characterizations, but aside from physical appearances everyone is basically human with human motivations. In the end this makes Hell just a more corrupt version of Earth (which was the author's intent). Although there is no theme per se, Williams uses this construct to shine an unflattering light on certain aspects of Earth's civilization. And detective Chen has a demon wife. Demon wives can get into trouble and I always worried that the book was about to break into a sitcom episode with Chen playing the conga drum and singing Babalu.
Last, but not least, Liz Williams writes pretty good prose. I would say very good prose except for one small thing. The best fiction is immersive and you can actually forget you're reading. It's important that nothing disturb this state of perfection which includes the prose. Sometimes a writer wishes to establish that as a writer in good standing she possesses an extensive vocabulary. Liz Williams has some favorite words that do not show up in everyday use, for example, "lambent". It's a perfectly good word, it means glowing, and many readers will have no trouble with the meaning of "lambent" because being readers they have an extensive vocabulary as well. The problem with words like "lambent" is that they are not in everyday use and every time you encounter them it reminds you that you are reading thus breaking the spell of immersion.
This may be a weaker entry in my fantasy reading, but the spirit guides are still doing well and I'm still happily following the trail of fantasy breadcrumbs.
Like Servant of the Underworld (which I really liked) Snake Agent is not the usual Christian mythology. So Liz Williams has to do a bit of world building which she does without info dumps and the other usual missteps. Full marks.
There's a pretty simple story which takes forever to develop and mostly takes place in the last quarter of the novel. So, kind of a weak story.
There are humans, demons, gods and goddesses. This gives the opportunity for wide, divergent characterizations, but aside from physical appearances everyone is basically human with human motivations. In the end this makes Hell just a more corrupt version of Earth (which was the author's intent). Although there is no theme per se, Williams uses this construct to shine an unflattering light on certain aspects of Earth's civilization. And detective Chen has a demon wife. Demon wives can get into trouble and I always worried that the book was about to break into a sitcom episode with Chen playing the conga drum and singing Babalu.
Last, but not least, Liz Williams writes pretty good prose. I would say very good prose except for one small thing. The best fiction is immersive and you can actually forget you're reading. It's important that nothing disturb this state of perfection which includes the prose. Sometimes a writer wishes to establish that as a writer in good standing she possesses an extensive vocabulary. Liz Williams has some favorite words that do not show up in everyday use, for example, "lambent". It's a perfectly good word, it means glowing, and many readers will have no trouble with the meaning of "lambent" because being readers they have an extensive vocabulary as well. The problem with words like "lambent" is that they are not in everyday use and every time you encounter them it reminds you that you are reading thus breaking the spell of immersion.
This may be a weaker entry in my fantasy reading, but the spirit guides are still doing well and I'm still happily following the trail of fantasy breadcrumbs.
December 28, 2008
SF. Wei Chen is a detective inspector with the Singapore Three police department, but his colleagues fear him for his ties to the underworld. Chen investigates supernatural crimes, associates with demons and gods, and is no stranger to Hell. This is set in the near future -- there's some new technology, Singapore's become a franchise -- but the biggest difference is that communication between Earth and the afterlife has finally moved beyond bird entrails and tea leaves; Hell's got email. Heaven and Hell are actual places here and William gets serious points for her inventive use of the supernatural and the way she makes gods and ghosts -- and the bureaucracy of both -- part of Chen's everyday life. The landscape of Hell is detailed and disgusting, and Chen is part detective, part warrior priest. His wife...has potential. Inari spends most of her time in her nightgown getting rescued by men, but she's not completely helpless; I would have liked to see more of a character arc with her. She should have changed over the course of the novel, and I'm not sure she did. I liked this book a lot, but it has its problems.
At times this felt like the second book in a series rather than the first. The backstory about Chen and his wife could have been integrated into the story more smoothly; I often felt like I had somehow missed the book where they met. Williams had a lot of stuff to introduce here and she drops the ball on some of it. The mystery's a bit tangled and after-the-fact. Instead of running through the entire novel, I felt like it only came to the forefront in the last third. This isn't a traditional whodunit mystery, but even as a b-plot it was poorly developed. And, I'm not qualified at all to speak on this, but it has to be said that Williams is a Westerner writing about the East and even I, another Westerner, was able to see places where she made assumptions or fell into lazy, Western-centric writing. She's inconsistent with putting the family name first or last, and at least twice she has Chen wonder "what the Western phrase" was for something. Hello? I'm sure the Chinese have a saying for that! Why on Earth would he be wondering how a Westerner would say it? There aren't even any Westerners in this book! Her manufactured Singapore Three was a great setting, but it would have been even more textured if she'd done a little work explaining Chinese tradition or why, for god's sake, Chen was carrying a rosary when he's not Catholic. (A quick Google tells me that Hindus and Buddhists call prayer beads japa mala or mala.)
Apart from the dodgy cultural appropriation issues, there really is a lot of interesting stuff going on here. I have one word for you: badger-teakettle. Williams never fully explains the badger-teakettle and what's awesome is that she doesn't need to. It's a badger-teakettle, and it's fantastic. Also fantastic is Zhu Irzh, a demon that Chen is forced to work with in order to solve the ghost-trafficking case he's picked up. These two are very slashy, lots of standing pressed together and whispering into ears and having hot, golden eyes and two completely different ways of seeing things. I would definitely read Chen/Zhu Irzh slash. Zhu Irzh has a tail. I'm just sayin'. Plus there's a hint of Inari/Chen/Zhu Irzh.
Fours stars. Read it for the supernatural crime-fighting, read it for the sexy wrong-side-of-the-tracks partnership, read it for the atmosphere, just don't expect much from the mystery as this book is more about action than sleuthing.
At times this felt like the second book in a series rather than the first. The backstory about Chen and his wife could have been integrated into the story more smoothly; I often felt like I had somehow missed the book where they met. Williams had a lot of stuff to introduce here and she drops the ball on some of it. The mystery's a bit tangled and after-the-fact. Instead of running through the entire novel, I felt like it only came to the forefront in the last third. This isn't a traditional whodunit mystery, but even as a b-plot it was poorly developed. And, I'm not qualified at all to speak on this, but it has to be said that Williams is a Westerner writing about the East and even I, another Westerner, was able to see places where she made assumptions or fell into lazy, Western-centric writing. She's inconsistent with putting the family name first or last, and at least twice she has Chen wonder "what the Western phrase" was for something. Hello? I'm sure the Chinese have a saying for that! Why on Earth would he be wondering how a Westerner would say it? There aren't even any Westerners in this book! Her manufactured Singapore Three was a great setting, but it would have been even more textured if she'd done a little work explaining Chinese tradition or why, for god's sake, Chen was carrying a rosary when he's not Catholic. (A quick Google tells me that Hindus and Buddhists call prayer beads japa mala or mala.)
Apart from the dodgy cultural appropriation issues, there really is a lot of interesting stuff going on here. I have one word for you: badger-teakettle. Williams never fully explains the badger-teakettle and what's awesome is that she doesn't need to. It's a badger-teakettle, and it's fantastic. Also fantastic is Zhu Irzh, a demon that Chen is forced to work with in order to solve the ghost-trafficking case he's picked up. These two are very slashy, lots of standing pressed together and whispering into ears and having hot, golden eyes and two completely different ways of seeing things. I would definitely read Chen/Zhu Irzh slash. Zhu Irzh has a tail. I'm just sayin'. Plus there's a hint of Inari/Chen/Zhu Irzh.
Fours stars. Read it for the supernatural crime-fighting, read it for the sexy wrong-side-of-the-tracks partnership, read it for the atmosphere, just don't expect much from the mystery as this book is more about action than sleuthing.
July 1, 2013
In one of my status updates I'd said I wasn't sure if I was suffering from the "fussy book crankies" or if there were other reasons that this book just wasn't quite connecting with me.
I've decided that it's the book.
Mostly, the biggest issue seems to be a lot of telling versus showing. "He did this. He was started. He did that. He reacted thusly." So on and so forth. It just wasn't very engaging writing, imo.
As an extention of that, I never really connected with the characters, either. My favorite was Zhu Irzh, the demon, but even he never really quite jumped out for me. The weakest was Inarra, sadly. Too much of a damsel in distress thing going on, even as she's wishing she didn't always have to be rescued. (I won't say it was total misogyny or anything, though, as the goddesses were stronger characters, and it's not like the male characters were really developed or anything, either.)
There were also some issues that I'm sort of surprised weren't pick up by an editor. Like, in one chapter it ended with Chen telling a taxi driver where to go. Then the next chapter we were in a different perspective, and then the following chapter we're back to Chen and he's having a short conversation and then he... tells the driver where to go.
And, no, the place hadn't changed.
Another point was when Zhu Irzh suddenly fought off another demon with a rosary.
But, wait - Chen had the rosary, not Zhu. Zhu shouldn't even be able to touch a rosary.
Not to mention I kept getting thrown by prayer beads being called a rosary. Yes, I know some people refer to Buddhist prayer beads as a Buddhist rosary - but you could also, I dunno, use a cultural name for them, like mala or juzu or something... or just call them prayer beads... I know I'm picking nits, and it's cause I was raised Catholic and all, but it kept throwing me.
That said, I never felt really immersed in the culture anyway.
Also, I felt like there were some cool ideas, like a bureacratic Hell and all, but a lot of the world-building didn't seem to quite follow through. I mean, we're given a system in which Hell isn't really supposed to be pure evil, but then it's treated as if it were.
Meh, I dunno...
Lemme just end this discombulated mini-rant by saying it wasn't all bad, and it did have some interesting ideas, but I wish it was all just fleshed out better and more consistent.
I've decided that it's the book.
Mostly, the biggest issue seems to be a lot of telling versus showing. "He did this. He was started. He did that. He reacted thusly." So on and so forth. It just wasn't very engaging writing, imo.
As an extention of that, I never really connected with the characters, either. My favorite was Zhu Irzh, the demon, but even he never really quite jumped out for me. The weakest was Inarra, sadly. Too much of a damsel in distress thing going on, even as she's wishing she didn't always have to be rescued. (I won't say it was total misogyny or anything, though, as the goddesses were stronger characters, and it's not like the male characters were really developed or anything, either.)
There were also some issues that I'm sort of surprised weren't pick up by an editor. Like, in one chapter it ended with Chen telling a taxi driver where to go. Then the next chapter we were in a different perspective, and then the following chapter we're back to Chen and he's having a short conversation and then he... tells the driver where to go.
And, no, the place hadn't changed.
Another point was when Zhu Irzh suddenly fought off another demon with a rosary.
But, wait - Chen had the rosary, not Zhu. Zhu shouldn't even be able to touch a rosary.
Not to mention I kept getting thrown by prayer beads being called a rosary. Yes, I know some people refer to Buddhist prayer beads as a Buddhist rosary - but you could also, I dunno, use a cultural name for them, like mala or juzu or something... or just call them prayer beads... I know I'm picking nits, and it's cause I was raised Catholic and all, but it kept throwing me.
That said, I never felt really immersed in the culture anyway.
Also, I felt like there were some cool ideas, like a bureacratic Hell and all, but a lot of the world-building didn't seem to quite follow through. I mean, we're given a system in which Hell isn't really supposed to be pure evil, but then it's treated as if it were.
Meh, I dunno...
Lemme just end this discombulated mini-rant by saying it wasn't all bad, and it did have some interesting ideas, but I wish it was all just fleshed out better and more consistent.
August 23, 2011
Snake Agent is mostly urban fantasy, with a touch of cyberpunk if you think about the technology involved in the bioweb, which turned out not to be just background and world-building, but a serious part of the plot. It's notable because it relies more on Eastern mythology and culture than Western: however, as with Liz Williams' other book, Empire of Bones, it didn't feel all that different.
A couple of other reviewers note their problems with Inari, and the lack of importance of female characters in the book. I have to say, I see where that's coming from. Inari spends most of her time running away and longing for someone else's protection; the other women are mostly dead or inconsequential, aside from two goddesses who do play important roles. Also, menstrual blood is a hellish, hellish thing in this world. Women's bodies are so icky, right?
Anyway, nonetheless I found it quite fun, and I loved the badger-teakettle. I wish there'd been more with the demon hunter and the naive sergeant -- they felt very incidental.
I'll be reading more of Liz Williams' books, I think -- unless the same problems just keep coming up again and again.
A couple of other reviewers note their problems with Inari, and the lack of importance of female characters in the book. I have to say, I see where that's coming from. Inari spends most of her time running away and longing for someone else's protection; the other women are mostly dead or inconsequential, aside from two goddesses who do play important roles. Also, menstrual blood is a hellish, hellish thing in this world. Women's bodies are so icky, right?
Anyway, nonetheless I found it quite fun, and I loved the badger-teakettle. I wish there'd been more with the demon hunter and the naive sergeant -- they felt very incidental.
I'll be reading more of Liz Williams' books, I think -- unless the same problems just keep coming up again and again.
November 5, 2014
Liz Williams has written over a dozen books, it turns out, but I hadn’t heard of her until someone mentioned her on my blog as an example of an author writing non-European settings. So I picked up this book and I've had it on my TBR shelves ever since. Well, a few days ago I finally was in the mood for a detective story / fantasy, so I picked it up. And it was really good! It’s a rather dense urban fantasy that in some ways feels like SF, because it’s set in the future.
Chen is a detective in Singapore Three, the third city of the Singapore franchise, which is currently constructing a sixth city down the coast, if I recall correctly. He works under the auspices of Kuan Yin, the Compassionate and Merciful, She Who Hears the Cries of the World. At the moment, though, he’s not in good graces with the goddess, having recently married a demon wife – hardly the act of an impeccable servant of Heaven.
Chen deals with supernatural crime, as you might imagine, and when the story opens, he is trying to find out what happened to a murdered girl – not so much what happened to kill her, though he does find that out as well, but his focus is more on why her ghost has gone missing rather than making its way to Heaven, and his priority is not so much on the crime that killed her, but on making sure the ghost is sent properly on its way. In the course of this investigation, he partners with a demon employed by Hell’s own police force, Seneschal Zhu Irzh, and searches out nefarious activity both on Earth and in Hell.
This is all a lot of fun. Not that the book is humorous or light; it’s actually rather gritty and quite dense; but the structure of the world and the detailed worldbuilding is so unusual and a great delight. We have big stuff like the bioweb in which girls earn the money to pay their dowries and the Ministry of Epidemics – we get a rather horrifying tour of the Ministry of Epidemics – and the path that departed souls take on their way out of life. Then we have a huge number of little details like the rosary and the use of incense and the badger-teakettle (seriously: a badger-teakettle!).
Though the world is gritty, the writing is quite lyrical. When Chen finally catches up with the lost ghost of the dead girl and sends her to Heaven, the scene is described this way: Chen had a glimpse of a place that made him cry out: a golden sky above glittering, diamond-blossomed trees, and the fragment of shadow that was Pearl Tang running among them until it was lost in the light.
Even Hell, for all its grindingly frustrating bureaucracy and everyday horrors – cloaks made of human skin and so forth – is often described lyrically, as here: The worst thing about the lower levels was not the thin, high voice that sang incessantly through the streets like the whine of a vast mosquito, nor the jets of acrid flame that shot at random from between the stones, but the dust-laden wind that blew in from the distant barrens. Dust stained Inari’s skin and seeped beneath her clothes, matting her hair and blocking her nose. She couldn’t stop sneezing; it was worse than the hay fever to which she’d been prone on Earth.
Actually, Inari is wrong: the dust isn’t the worst thing about the lower levels of Hell. But still, that’s enough to make it clear you wouldn’t want to visit.
So, beautiful writing, an unusual setting, and sympathetic characters – Seneschal Zhu Irzh is likeable, for a demon, not to mention Inari and Sergeant Ma, and of course Detective Inspector Chen is a great protagonist – I can see why Williams has been nominated a couple of times for the Philip K Dick Award. I’m glad someone drew her to my attention – thanks, whoever you were! – and I’ll be picking up the next Inspector Chen story soon, especially since I found SNAKE AGENT engaging and yet best enjoyed in small doses, easy to put down when I needed to get my own work done.
Chen is a detective in Singapore Three, the third city of the Singapore franchise, which is currently constructing a sixth city down the coast, if I recall correctly. He works under the auspices of Kuan Yin, the Compassionate and Merciful, She Who Hears the Cries of the World. At the moment, though, he’s not in good graces with the goddess, having recently married a demon wife – hardly the act of an impeccable servant of Heaven.
Chen deals with supernatural crime, as you might imagine, and when the story opens, he is trying to find out what happened to a murdered girl – not so much what happened to kill her, though he does find that out as well, but his focus is more on why her ghost has gone missing rather than making its way to Heaven, and his priority is not so much on the crime that killed her, but on making sure the ghost is sent properly on its way. In the course of this investigation, he partners with a demon employed by Hell’s own police force, Seneschal Zhu Irzh, and searches out nefarious activity both on Earth and in Hell.
This is all a lot of fun. Not that the book is humorous or light; it’s actually rather gritty and quite dense; but the structure of the world and the detailed worldbuilding is so unusual and a great delight. We have big stuff like the bioweb in which girls earn the money to pay their dowries and the Ministry of Epidemics – we get a rather horrifying tour of the Ministry of Epidemics – and the path that departed souls take on their way out of life. Then we have a huge number of little details like the rosary and the use of incense and the badger-teakettle (seriously: a badger-teakettle!).
Though the world is gritty, the writing is quite lyrical. When Chen finally catches up with the lost ghost of the dead girl and sends her to Heaven, the scene is described this way: Chen had a glimpse of a place that made him cry out: a golden sky above glittering, diamond-blossomed trees, and the fragment of shadow that was Pearl Tang running among them until it was lost in the light.
Even Hell, for all its grindingly frustrating bureaucracy and everyday horrors – cloaks made of human skin and so forth – is often described lyrically, as here: The worst thing about the lower levels was not the thin, high voice that sang incessantly through the streets like the whine of a vast mosquito, nor the jets of acrid flame that shot at random from between the stones, but the dust-laden wind that blew in from the distant barrens. Dust stained Inari’s skin and seeped beneath her clothes, matting her hair and blocking her nose. She couldn’t stop sneezing; it was worse than the hay fever to which she’d been prone on Earth.
Actually, Inari is wrong: the dust isn’t the worst thing about the lower levels of Hell. But still, that’s enough to make it clear you wouldn’t want to visit.
So, beautiful writing, an unusual setting, and sympathetic characters – Seneschal Zhu Irzh is likeable, for a demon, not to mention Inari and Sergeant Ma, and of course Detective Inspector Chen is a great protagonist – I can see why Williams has been nominated a couple of times for the Philip K Dick Award. I’m glad someone drew her to my attention – thanks, whoever you were! – and I’ll be picking up the next Inspector Chen story soon, especially since I found SNAKE AGENT engaging and yet best enjoyed in small doses, easy to put down when I needed to get my own work done.
January 15, 2012
With lush language and intricate world building, SNAKE AGENT takes us to a future world that may or may not be Earth. Our hero is Detective Inspector Chen, the “snake agent” of the Singapore Three police department. He’s the go-to person for any crime remotely connected to the supernatural or mystical.
Chen’s an overworked man with a lot of problems – his colleagues don’t trust him, his patron goddess appears to be offended by something he’s done, and his demon wife is bored staying home alone. Now, to make things worse, he’s been paired with a vice officer from Hell itself – Seneschal Zhu Irzh – to investigate the illegal traffic in souls.
As their search is blocked by both big money and big politics, it becomes apparent that the answers must be sought in Hell itself – and without the protection of Chen’s patron goddess. When his wife’s freedom is suddenly in peril, Chen’s cup runs over with more trouble than any individual should have to navigate.
This book is an occult thriller, if you will, with magic and SF swirled together to create a place you probably have never been before, but might be glad to visit – but only with a native guide. SNAKE AGENT has a steady horror that has little to do with boo-scares, and the characterization is wonderful. I found it hard to put down, and look forward to other adventures with the characters.
Recommended!
Chen’s an overworked man with a lot of problems – his colleagues don’t trust him, his patron goddess appears to be offended by something he’s done, and his demon wife is bored staying home alone. Now, to make things worse, he’s been paired with a vice officer from Hell itself – Seneschal Zhu Irzh – to investigate the illegal traffic in souls.
As their search is blocked by both big money and big politics, it becomes apparent that the answers must be sought in Hell itself – and without the protection of Chen’s patron goddess. When his wife’s freedom is suddenly in peril, Chen’s cup runs over with more trouble than any individual should have to navigate.
This book is an occult thriller, if you will, with magic and SF swirled together to create a place you probably have never been before, but might be glad to visit – but only with a native guide. SNAKE AGENT has a steady horror that has little to do with boo-scares, and the characterization is wonderful. I found it hard to put down, and look forward to other adventures with the characters.
Recommended!
October 14, 2011
[7/10] Interesting read, a good decision on the part of the author to base the story in Far East Asia and to tap the huge reservoir of chinese mythology for a noir-ish detective novel. The descriptions of the huge urban sprawl of Singapore Three and of the Hell undergound realm were well suited for maintaining the dark atmosphere of the novel, and the main characters were OK without shining. Humor was also treated right, in an understated way, relying more on the situational conflict and pointed barbs about how close Hell resembles our life above.
Were the book lost star point with me was in the pacing. I didn't feel this was a page turner, often I would finish a chapter and wonder if I should continue or start something else. And the main plot felt more like an excuse to introduce the world and the main actors, with the final denouement rushed in a couple of pages.
I might try another Detective Inspector Chen novel, but my favorite chinese detective remains Master Li from the regretably short lived Barry Hughart series.
Were the book lost star point with me was in the pacing. I didn't feel this was a page turner, often I would finish a chapter and wonder if I should continue or start something else. And the main plot felt more like an excuse to introduce the world and the main actors, with the final denouement rushed in a couple of pages.
I might try another Detective Inspector Chen novel, but my favorite chinese detective remains Master Li from the regretably short lived Barry Hughart series.
January 28, 2019
Note: still very enjoyable on rereading.
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Original review
I heard about this series on the horror podcast Pseudopod. The first of the series, the reader is plunged into action in progress so that I repeatedly kept checking for other books because I was sure there was a previous one that started off a bit slower and explained more. Nope. Set in 21st century Singapore, with Asian-flavored Heaven and Hell as mighty influencers of human life, Detective Inspector Chen and his sidekick, Demon Zhu Irzh, must traverse all areas to solve the mysteries that come their way. In this scenario, a department in Hell is poising itself for a coup of both Hell and Earth. Chen and Zhu Irzh have both personal and professional reasons for not wanting this to happen. With some help from the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, Kuan Yin, they investigate. This possibly sounds shallow but is not as Williams effectively melds mystery, horror, and fantasy into an absorbing, original book.
========
Original review
I heard about this series on the horror podcast Pseudopod. The first of the series, the reader is plunged into action in progress so that I repeatedly kept checking for other books because I was sure there was a previous one that started off a bit slower and explained more. Nope. Set in 21st century Singapore, with Asian-flavored Heaven and Hell as mighty influencers of human life, Detective Inspector Chen and his sidekick, Demon Zhu Irzh, must traverse all areas to solve the mysteries that come their way. In this scenario, a department in Hell is poising itself for a coup of both Hell and Earth. Chen and Zhu Irzh have both personal and professional reasons for not wanting this to happen. With some help from the Chinese Goddess of Mercy, Kuan Yin, they investigate. This possibly sounds shallow but is not as Williams effectively melds mystery, horror, and fantasy into an absorbing, original book.
April 19, 2019
Snake Agent is an unexpected little gem: There are many books that try to blend fantasy and Chinese mythology, but few pull it off as successfully as this. The worldbuilding is fresh and playful, the plot speeds along nicely throughout, and the characters are a delight. (I was sold from the first mention of a badger-teakettle demon familiar. <3)
I’m usually not a huge fan of supernatural magic-and-demons stories, but I really admire the way the mythology has been spun into the setting here — sometimes played straight, sometimes subtle, sometimes just tongue-in-cheek. Of course Hell would be a giant bureaucracy... complete with endless queues to see minor officials about fiddly paperwork, and no bathrooms in sight. :)
If you like fantasy but want something a little more off the beaten path than the usual swords-and-sorcery tales, consider giving this one a try. I really enjoyed myself, and look forward to seeing what comes next in this series!
I’m usually not a huge fan of supernatural magic-and-demons stories, but I really admire the way the mythology has been spun into the setting here — sometimes played straight, sometimes subtle, sometimes just tongue-in-cheek. Of course Hell would be a giant bureaucracy... complete with endless queues to see minor officials about fiddly paperwork, and no bathrooms in sight. :)
If you like fantasy but want something a little more off the beaten path than the usual swords-and-sorcery tales, consider giving this one a try. I really enjoyed myself, and look forward to seeing what comes next in this series!
January 10, 2022
4.5 rounding up for being the best book I've read this year. This was a fun, short read with a richly imagined world and likable characters. There are a few minor loose ends towards the end which are wrapped up suspiciously quickly but by and large I'm a sucker for happy endings and don't particularly care how they come about. An excellent recommendation by my sister Amrita, as always.
June 4, 2020
3.5 stars.
I must admit that it took me a long time to get through this book, even though the story itself was interesting and the worldbuilding top notch and different from the usual Christian slash European fare. In fact, the worldbuilding is what made me go back to this book over and over again.
My problem with this book was that I just couldn't emphasize with most of the narrators, especially Chen. He felt like a blank space to me. So much so that I couldn't even picture him in my head while I was reading about him.
The demon Zhu Irzh seemed rather shallow in the beginning, but he grew on me and I ended up enjoying his chapters the most.
My biggest issue is that the character I was the most interested in - Inari - ended up having the least agency in this story. She is a damsel in distress for most of the book, to be rescued by the male protagonists. And even though she had decided that she didn't want to go back to Earth and play the part of a dutiful wife, that's exactly where she ended up. Stuck on that houseboat again, with no freedom and no purpose. This was very disappointing.
I am willing to check out the next book in the series to see how this plays out, but I really hope Inari stops being so passive.
I must admit that it took me a long time to get through this book, even though the story itself was interesting and the worldbuilding top notch and different from the usual Christian slash European fare. In fact, the worldbuilding is what made me go back to this book over and over again.
My problem with this book was that I just couldn't emphasize with most of the narrators, especially Chen. He felt like a blank space to me. So much so that I couldn't even picture him in my head while I was reading about him.
The demon Zhu Irzh seemed rather shallow in the beginning, but he grew on me and I ended up enjoying his chapters the most.
My biggest issue is that the character I was the most interested in - Inari - ended up having the least agency in this story. She is a damsel in distress for most of the book, to be rescued by the male protagonists. And even though she had decided that she didn't want to go back to Earth and play the part of a dutiful wife, that's exactly where she ended up. Stuck on that houseboat again, with no freedom and no purpose. This was very disappointing.
I am willing to check out the next book in the series to see how this plays out, but I really hope Inari stops being so passive.
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